Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1912 — IDEAS FOR HOME BUILDERS BY WMARADFORD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IDEAS FOR HOME BUILDERS BY WMARADFORD

Mr. W illlam A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF I COST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building, for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Editor, Author and Manufacturer, he | is, without doubt, the highest authority on all these subjects. Address all inquiries to William A. Radford, No. 178 West Jackson boulevard. Chicago, 111., and only enclose two-cent stamp for reply. It would be difficult to design a practical house any cheaper than the one illustrated herewith. It is a small affair intended for a new married couple who don’t require much room. It is a very neat, pretty little story and a | half house, 25 feet 6 Inches wide by .27 feet 6 inches long, exclusive of porches. Love in a cottage used to mean more or less discomfort in the winter time as soon as the weather got cold, but modern inventions have lately been introduced into the smaller houses, and we are applying them in a sensible way. i- [ Besides a hall, we have three good. I large rooms on the first floor, and we have two very good bedrooms and a bathroom tucked away in the roof ■ gables. In fact it might properly be | called a gable end house. All the windows you get upstairs are in the gambles; and, by the way, these windows just add the necessary finishing touches to the large gables. A house gable was never finished satisfactorily I until the three window’ frame was inj vented, and that didn’t happen until quite recently. There was some objection at first to triple windows like this, until the found out how to dress them up satisfactorily; but we don’t hear any complaint now. The fashion seems to have come to stay, because the women have given it their sanction. When the women nail a fashion, it stays nailed until they change their minds; and they haven’t published anj change of sentiment in regard to a triple window, especially when it decorates the gable end of a house roof. The reason probably is that they have found a satisfactory way to arrange the shades and curtains; and they have also found out that a window of this kind admits more light.

sunshine and air than a narrow, contracted, old-fashioned affair. One great advantage of a house like this is the ease with which the housework is carried on. There are many pleasant features about the plan, one of which is the combination living room and dining room which makes practically one room nearly 27 feet long by 13 feet in width. The partial division in the center may be hung with curtains or not; but usually the

archway is left open, especially in the summer time. If a woman has handsome portieres, she likes to display them at; the proper time; but she also likes to put them away in summer, out of the way of moths and the fading propensities of sunlight. And I often think that she does it to have a change. I don’t care how handsome a curtain is, If it hangs before you the year round, you become indifferent to it; in fact, you don’t see it, you don’t know it is there. But if your wife puts it away you miss it, and when it comes back again you are pleased to renew old . '- quaintances. A real, live,* womanly woman is fully alive to the fact that most men and some women forget things when they are out of sight and out of hearing; so next fall the old curtains pass for new draperies.

The front hall connects with the kitchen by way of a sort of cellar vestibule. This arrangement is all right. A great many houses are so built that you can’t get from the kitchen to the front hall is likely to disseminate the dining room ‘and parlor. The idea seems to be that a door opening from the kitchen in the direction of the front hall is likely to disesmlnate the savory odor of cooking when certain vegetables are undergoing the boiling process, and the perfume is not considered sufficiently “bon ton” to associate on equal terms with guests In the parlor. ■<-/ • This plan, however, provides for double doors, a precaution that is like-

ly to meet with approval from the most fastidious housekeepers. The cellar-way leads down from this little vestibule, and there is also a set of [ shelves reaching from the floor to the I ceiling. This set of cellar-way shelves is about as useful as any other feature of the house. For some reason it is almost impossible to keep jellies in the cellar without having them mold in the glasses. If kept in the kitchen the jellies shrink until the glassses are not more than half full; but shelves in a cellarway built like this I seem to hit the happy medium, and the

fruit comes out just as nice*in the winter time as when put up in summer. Dry air in the house and damp cellar air meet here, and the results are very satisfactory. The value of a house is made up of little things. It is the many little things added together that make the round, satisfactory whole. The man who wants a house to suit them must study the details before starting to build; otherwise the house will be unsatisfactory when finished. The fact is, few families can find a satisfactory ready made. It is difficult for anyone to fee’ really, thoroughly at home in a rented house. There are fifty little things you would like to have different, but you positively refuse to put time and expense on a house that belongs to someone else. This is one reason why I so often recommend young people to start out in a home of their own. It may not be elaborate, but if it fits the pocketbook it is very likely to prove the nucleus of a happy and prqsperous life. This little six-room dwelling has been built for SI,BOO. It should not cost very much more than that today.

Second Floor Plan

First Floor Plan